According to the entrepreneur, Virgin Galactic already accepted its first purchase made with this “new exciting currency”, Branson said. The lucky space traveler is a flight attendant from Hawaii. Apparently, the woman made “quite a lot of money getting into Bitcoin early on”, he told CNBC.

The client bought the trip with Bitcoin and then Virgin Galactic converted the amount into US dollars, specifically $250,000. “There’s a fixed price [and]we can actually pay her money back, if she changes her mind about going to space in a few months”.

After the interview, Richard Branson tweeted two more Bitcoin-themed messages.

Actually, during the Skype talk with CNBC, the entrepreneur revealed he was also an early Bitcoin investor and is holding on for the long-term. “I have invested in some Bitcoins myself and find it fascinating how a whole new global currency has been created”, he wrote on Virgin’s website. Brason even compared the virtual coin with his own business.

Photo: Virgin

Virgin Galactic is a bold entrepreneurial technology. It’s driving a revolution. And Bitcoin is doing just the same when it comes to inventing a new currency.

I think the fact that there’s going to be a limited number of Bitcoins out there and it will ultimately be capped — unlike normal currencies where governments can print more currency — gives it a sense of security. There have been spikes and lows. But I think one day it will settle at a price that, I personally believe, is higher than the price today.

The entrepreneur also focuses regulation on Virgin’s website: “Bitcoins aren’t yet formally recognized by governments as a currency, but with some regulation I hope that it will become more widely accepted. A few years ago many people had doubts about whether Virgin Galactic would ever get off the ground. Now we have gone supersonic, are a long way along the testing process, and are looking forward to launching commercial space travel”.